The Pope Does It Again

Once again, the Pope proves that even the oldest, most traditional organizations in the world can adapt to change – and use it to enlighten his sphere of influence. This time, he uses a tablet to light the world’s largest Christmas tree.

Regular readers of our column know we’ve been fans of the Pope’s use of technology to bring his church’s message into the modern era. Back in 2008, he reached out to the youngest in his sphere of influence by sending text messages around the globe during World Youth Congress. Earlier this year, the Pope made an extra-planetary video call the Atlantis space shuttle using Skype. And let’s not forget that the Pontiff regularly relies upon six or more Twitter accounts to take his message to his tweeps. Now the Pope is ending the good-old-scroll days by lighting up the world’s largest Christmas tree in Umbria, remotely from the Vatican.

Talk about Go-To-My-Christmas-Tree!

The point, of course, isn’t just that the current Pope is somewhat of a geek. Rather, it’s that he continues to prove the point that no matter how long you’ve “always done it this way” there’s no excuse for not keeping up with the times. It’s a lesson still to be learned by so many business professionals. Consider that in the current survey of REALTORS by the National Association of REALTORS, only 50% said they used social media. In fact, the survey didn’t even include tablets in its questions about which tech tools real estate agents are using these days. That’s interesting considering about 20 million of the devices are selling each quarter this year, with more than 100 million estimated to sell next year, according to Morgan Stanley.

In an era of 500,000 apps, 800 million Facebook users and 2 billion streams a day on YouTube, it should come as no surprise that all organizations are using tablets, social apps and video to engage their audience. Unfortunately, some people still haven’t seen the light. Thank goodness the Pope has: It’s the one at the top of the tree he lit with the tap of his finger.